


Sky-Bound and Sprinting

by mpatientdreamr



Category: Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-01
Updated: 2014-12-01
Packaged: 2018-02-27 17:45:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2701730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mpatientdreamr/pseuds/mpatientdreamr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Sky Copper clutch bring about new complications.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sky-Bound and Sprinting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Percygranger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Percygranger/gifts).



> Title from the poem Perfectly Human by Miles Walser.
> 
> Many thanks to my wonderful beta.

Stone had that look on his face that meant he was bored and annoyed at the same time. Moon was pretty sure that was the expression Stone had every time someone disagreed with him, but he didn't care. This was one argument he was going to win.

“We're not throwing Bitter off a platform to see how long it takes him to try to fly,” Moon said, tossing up his hands. “And we're not leaving him on the forest floor with the Kek to see how long it takes him to want to fly back up. The kid's got enough problems without adding to his trust issues.”

Stone shrugged, although there was a gleam in his eye that Moon thought might be approval. “Well, if you're not going to scare him into it, then you're going to have to do it the hard way. You're going to have to convince him that he wants to fly.”

Moon stared at him, dumbfounded. He'd likely have more luck convincing a ghobin to become a vegetarian.

“Pearl's prepared to take matters into her own hands,” Ember said, and Moon spun around, startled. He'd forgotten the kid was there. Ember blinked innocently, and Moon reminded himself yet again that he wasn't a physical threat yet, but he was a political wunderkind, and he was great at fading away in plain sight. “It looks bad to visiting courts, a fostered consort fledgling not knowing how to fly. Like Indigo Cloud doesn't really care enough to teach him the basics.”

“Nobody's throwing Bitter off of anything,” Moon said with a sense of finality. “I'll teach him to fly. I've got an idea.”

***

Moon could feel Jade watching him pace, feel her amusement at his expense, and he gave serious consideration to going back up to the consorts' bower, but that felt too much like flouncing away in a snit.

“You don't have any new ideas, do you”” she said, rolling over onto her back to watch him upside down. “You shouldn't have told them you did. Pearl won't wait forever, and they could've helped.”

“She's not throwing Bitter anywhere,” he snapped, getting tired of repeating himself.

“I remember the story of how she taught Burn to fly. That's also the story of how she became reigning queen. Amber tried to rip her head off for throwing him off the highest terrace. Amber lost the challenge, and Burn learned to fly the hard way,” she said, stretching.

Moon turned to stare at her, horrified. That was just--

He smiled, and she sighed. “Now you have an idea.”

“Yeah,” he said, then shifted and leaped until he was crouched on the edge of the bed. “But that'll have to wait until tomorrow.”

“Yeah?” she said before snatching him from the edge and rolling until he was under her.

“Yeah,” he said, winding his fingers through her frills and tugging her down to kiss him.  
***  
His idea had to wait six days and not even Pearl could complain that he was shirking his duties. Torrential rains, a clogged drain that caused the nursery to flood, and two hunters nearly getting eaten by a large insect shaped like a fruit vine kept everyone too busy to complain about anything except how tired they were.

Ember sat beside him in the packed teachers’ hall during the evening meal, yawning into his fist. Ember had followed Moon's example and helped wherever he could, which for Ember meant less grunt work and more babysitting while the teachers tried to clean and air out the nursery.

“You okay?” Moon asked. Ember had never been expected to work a day in his life.

“Yeah,” Ember said, rubbing his eyes, then stretching. He glanced around, then leaned into Moon and murmured, “No one's ever needed me before. I think I like it.”

Moon jostled his shoulder and made him smile. “When I was living with groundlings, one of the best ways to fit in was to be useful. River says consorts shouldn't, but,” he shrugged, looking down at the last remains of the roasted root vegetables that the warriors rarely ate, “the Arbora like it and River's wrong about pretty much everything anyway.”

Ember nudged him and said, “Well, everybody knows the Arbora really run the court. And as long as rival courts never find out, it doesn't matter.”

Ember nudged him again, then pointedly yawned into his fist. Moon sighed but set aside his trencher and let the kid slide into his lap, curling up impossibly small and pretty much passing out, which made sense as the nursery was brimming with active babies and fledglings and they'd have been running him ragged.

Moon suddenly felt like he was being stalked by a predator and looked up to find Pearl's gimlet gaze on him. Moon shrugged and settled his chin against the top of Ember's head. She pursed her lips but didn't come to haul Ember away, so he figured they weren't breaking some protocol Moon didn't know about.

“Are we napping?” Root asked as he wandered up, stretching.

Most of the warriors in Jade's faction had been helping Moon and the Arbora with the drains. He wasn't sure if it was because Jade said something to them or they just didn't like to stand aside while he worked.

“Sure,” Moon said, leaning back until he was propped against the wall. “Why not?”

Root settled down, his head resting against Moon's hip. That seemed to be some kind of signal, and soon Moon couldn't have moved from his corner of the hall if he'd wanted to, the sleeping jumble of bodies making an impossible obstacle course unless he shifted. Instead, he settled back, arms wrapped around Ember, and let his mind drift.

***  
Sleeping in the hall hadn't been his plan, but Moon woke up with Jade's arm around his waist. Ember was missing, and he couldn't imagine sleeping through Pearl jostling him, so he must have left on his own. Instead, the royal clutch was curled up on his lap, and Moon figured that was as subtle a hint as Pearl was likely to give him.

He woke Frost by tugging lightly on her frills. She scowled at him, scrubbing her eyes, but she sat up.

“You're going to spend the day with Jade,” he told her quietly, and Jade huffed against his neck but didn't deny it. “And Thorn's going with Ember to learn about...tea, I think.”

Frost narrowed her eyes at him. “And Bitter?”

“Bitter's going with me and Stone,” he said, hoping she didn't decide to throw a fit. The warriors were all still asleep.

Frost gave him a dubious look. “You're going to make Bitter fly.”

“No,” he said, having made a final decision on that at least. “No one can make Bitter fly.”

“But you're going to try to teach him,” she said and looked at him with a touch of pity.

“Maybe,” he said, tugging a spine and smiling when she swatted his hand away. “You trust me, though, don't you?”

“Yes,” she said and sounded sincere. “But just because you teach him to fly doesn't mean he's ever going to like it.”

“At this point, I'll settle for him being able to,” he said, then kissed her forehead on impulse. He'd never understand why the clutch had put their faith in him. “Don't worry about it.”

“We should probably get up,” she said even as she leaned back against him.

“Yeah, it's going to be a long day,” he said.

She nodded, then kicked Thorn in the backside. He woke with a yelp, then twisted to tackle her onto Jade's lap, then into the tangle of sleeping warriors around them. Bitter crawled up to lean against Moon's chest, yawning.

Jade stretched. “I'll take Thorn up to Ember, and then Frost and I will go do Queen things.”

She nipped his neck before she left to let him know she wasn't really annoyed at being volunteered.

Bitter looked up at him, suddenly wary, and Moon pushed to his feet, the boy securely held against his chest. He wound around disgruntled waking warriors until they were out into the nearly empty corridor. Stone fell in behind him, and Moon didn't even bother asking how he knew, just moved in the direction of the knothole. Bitter's grip on his shirt had become choking. Moon shifted once they were outside and leaped into the air. Bitter grabbed handfuls of frills and buried his face in his scales. He normally wasn't skittish about being carried while flying, so Moon was pretty sure he knew what they would be doing today. It was hard for him to remember sometimes that Bitter might be just as new to Indigo Cloud, but he'd spent his whole life as a member of a court.

Stone passed them by, and Moon decided to follow him. The warriors would surely be curious, and this was going to be a delicate enough operation as it was. Stone landed on one of the wide platforms that had been cleared of predators by hunters, shifted, and had already put a kettle on to make tea when Moon landed and set Bitter on his feet. Moon shifted as Bitter moved to sit by the makeshift hearth, staring at his hands.

Moon settled beside him and took the dented cup from Stone as well as some dried meat and fruits from his travel pack. The three ate their morning meal in quiet as he tried to figure out the best way to put what he was feeling into words, but words weren't really his strong suit, and it was an ugly story.

“My foster mother threw out of a nest once,” he said, refusing on so many levels to think of Swift as just another warrior doing their duty. Bitter looked up at him, startled. “It's true. I wasn't much older than you, we were living a tree away from the colony, and Tath attacked in the middle of the night. She threw me out of the tree to save my life, and it took me a long time to fly back up because I wasn't good at it. When I got back to the nest, they were all gone, my foster mother and the Arbora babies I grew up with.”

Bitter was staring at him wide-eyed, and he wiggled in his seat like he wanted to ask questions. Moon thought for a second that he should have brought Frost or Thorn with them so that Bitter would have someone to speak through, but decided that would have made all this harder.

Moon cleared his throat and took a sip of tea, almost choking when Stone said, “But you didn't stop flying.”

“Well, no. Flying meant survival, meant easier hunting, and safer hiding places,” Moon said, then waved that away. “What I meant was, I was bad at it, but I got better. With a lot of practice, I got better at flying, and that's what helped me rescue you and Frost and Thorn from the Fell.”

Bitter clenched his hands into fists and his jaw took on a stubborn tilt.

“I'm not going to make you fly,” Moon told him, shrugging. “And I'm not going to let anyone else make you either. I just think you should learn so that you can protect yourself and your clutchmates.”

Moon let him stew on that, walking over to the edge of the platform and stretching. He was getting spoiled if sleeping without cushions left him this stiff.

He felt little claws sink into his pants and looked down to see Bitter staring up at him in his winged form, determined. His wings were curled tight against his back.

“Okay,” he said, nodding. He picked Bitter up and walked until he was about five paces away from Stone. “Okay, I'm going to toss you up and you fly to Stone. We'll worry about taking off and landing when you get a little better.”

Bitter nodded and moved until he was facing Stone. Stone held out his hands and Moon tossed Bitter up. Bitter's wings flapped frantically and he flailed and wobbled his way towards Stone. Stone caught him, turned him and shoved him up into the air again.

***  
They spent half the day with Bitter flying between them, wings grow stronger and more stable until he was landing on Stone's palm and leaping back up to fly to Moon.

By midday, though, he was starting to sag and Moon thought they'd all had enough. Bitter curled up in his arms and went to sleep as Stone cleaned up their temporary camp.

“That was good,” Stone said, joining him at the edge of the platform with his beat up travel pack over his shoulder. “What you told him.”

“It was the truth,” he said, shrugging.

Stone gave him a peeved look. “That's why it worked.”

He shifted and leaped into the air, catching the breeze with a few careful beats of his massive wings.

“Conversation over then,” Moon muttered, then shifted and followed his example.

The colony was in a tizzy when he landed, and he lifted an eyebrow at Song, who was shifting from foot to foot. She was obviously waiting for him because she relaxed as soon as she saw him.

“What's wrong?” he asked, clutching Bitter closer to him when one of the Arbora moved to take him away.

“A diplomatic envoy showed up while you were gone,” she said and started to wring her hands. “They say they're from Sky Copper.”

Stone went still behind him and Moon shook his head. “That's impossible. We were there. The whole place was destroyed.”

“From their home court,” she said, wincing. “From here in the Reaches.”

Moon looked to Stone, shocked.

“Word must have gotten out,” Stone said grimly. He was staring at Bitter with an unreadable face. “No one was sure if their home court had survived after they split and part of them left the Reaches. They must have heard about the fledglings through all the trade gossip.”

“They can't have them,” Moon snarled, then handed Bitter over to Blossom when he woke with a squeak.

Stone waited until Bitter was taken away to the nursery before he shrugged. “Technically, they can. Probably, they just want an alliance or something.”

Moon tried to calm himself as he followed Stone up to the bower. Getting angry and making a scene wouldn't get them anywhere. They had to prove they were fit or whatever. 

He bathed and put on whatever Stone handed to him, only a little startled to realize the pendant that used to belong to his father was the only thing he recognized.

Stone shoved him into the waiting chamber before he could ask any questions, and Ember looked up from his hands as Moon started to pace. Calm wasn't really working for him.

Balm came to the door before he could work himself into a fine state and motioned them through. Moon had to stop himself from trampling her or shifting and flaring his spines as soon as he saw the tableau in the greeting hall. A strange queen, her scales faded to white, sat across from Jade and Pearl, who were both holding themselves with a predator's stillness. Frost must have been sent back to the nursery as soon as their guests arrived.

Something must have shown on his face because the old queen's retinue stiffened.

Stone gave him a little shove to get him out of the doorway, and Moon moved to sit a little behind Jade. She curled her tail over his lap. He didn't know what to make of that, whether it was supposed to be calming or possessive, so he settled for glaring at the old queen. That was probably breaking some rule, too, but he didn't care.

“This is Moon of Opal Night, first consort of Jade, sister queen of Indigo Cloud,” Pearl rattled off, managing to sound bored and amused at the same time. “Moon, this is Peridot, reigning queen of Sky Copper.”

Jade poked him with her tail, so he swallowed a growl and said, “Hello.”

That was all he could manage without getting rude, so he shut his mouth.

“Your queen tells me you rescued the clutch from the Fell,” Peridot said, eying him speculatively. “For that, we thank you.”

Moon had no idea what to say to that and was pretty sure shrugging was the wrong answer, so he was glad when Pearl said dryly, “Yes, he's adamantly opposed to letting the Fell torture and eat innocents.”

Peridot flicked a spine to cede the point, then addressed Moon again. “After the...situation with your birthcourt, I'm sure you're worried about what we're doing here.”

“We were wondering,” Stone said from behind Moon, startling him. Only the sudden pressure in his chest kept him from shifting and twice in one day, Moon was glad for Pearl's interference.

Peridot seemed annoyed that she couldn't get Moon to talk to her directly but answered, “As their birthcourt, we have a duty to make certain they're doing well. I'm afraid that removing them at this point would do more harm than good, but the court has to be satisfied.”

“So you're not here to just take them away,” he managed, fighting back a rush of relief. She hadn't exactly said what she wanted in return, yet, either.

“No, no,” she said, shaking her head with a smile. “Sky Copper has plenty of royal clutches at the moment. We can spare a queen and two consorts. But we need to make certain they're well cared for.”

“And what do you want in return for letting us keep them?” he asked, tired of playing games with her.

Pearl shifted, annoyed, but Peridot shrugged. “In a few generations, when this court is established and thriving, we would like Indigo Cloud to offer a consort to our court for consideration. If nothing comes of it, so be it.”

“But what do you get out of it?” he asked, confused.

“An alliance with this court is nothing to sneeze at,” she said, smiling at him. “We're not as large as Emerald Twilight or your birthcourt, and I'm old, Moon of Opal Night, first consort of Jade, sister queen of Indigo Cloud, and all I want is to keep my court safe from other courts that would push us aside.”

Moon felt his spine go loose in relief. “Oh.”

“Perhaps Moon could fetch the royal clutch while we speak about this alliance,” Pearl said tartly.  
***  
The nursery was comforting chaos when he stepped through the high arched doorway. Blossom caught sight of him and pointed him towards one of the back rooms. He peeped through the doorway and smiled at the sight of the clutch jumbled up in their nest with Arbora babies.

He gently untangled Frost, then Thorn, and finally Bitter and scooped them all up when it became apparent that they weren't in any mood to go anywhere under their own power.

“Where are we going?” Frost mumbled into his shoulder. Thorn and Bitter were already asleep again.

“Up to see a visiting queen,” he said quietly.

“I don't want to,” she whined, mostly back to sleep.

“I know. Just go back to sleep,” he whispered.

When he got back to the greeting hall, the stilted conversation stopped as everybody turned to stare at him. Moon had another one of those uncomfortable moments of having no clue what to do until Stone nudged the pillow behind Jade and lifted an eyebrow. Moon walked over to sit, careful not to jostle anybody awake.

He looked up to see Peridot giving him a peculiar look, and he realized he'd done something wrong again.

Instead of rescinding their guardianship or whatever, she merely said, “I see. We were obviously concerned over nothing.”

Bitter sat up from the tangle rubbing at his eyes and decided, after one look in Peridot's direction, to put into practice everything he'd learned today by shifting, leaping off of Moon's knee, and landing in Stone's lap, then curling up and going back to sleep. Knowing how predators reacted to Stone, Moon thought that was a very astute take on the situation.

“Perhaps we should go to dinner,” Pearl suggested, and Moon was left wondering what had just happened as the room cleared, Bell coming to fetch the clutch with a cranky look.

Moon looked at Stone. “What'd I do?”

“You should've had one of the teachers carry them up, and, ideally, they would have been awake for the first meeting with their birthcourt,” he shrugged. “Peridot seemed to like it though. Don't worry, it'll be fine. She's a canny old queen who doesn't want a war.”

“So it's fine,” Moon said, feeling stupid for needing the reassurance.

“Yeah, kid, it's fine,” Stone said, getting up and ruffling his hair. “Now let's go get dinner.”

Moon let himself believe it really was fine and followed Stone. It'd been a long day, and he was suddenly starving.

***

Later that night, after negotiations had been hammered out and their guests tucked away, Moon was curled around Jade, twining his fingers idly through her frills.

“Did Pearl really throw Burn off the highest terrace?” he finally asked. Pearl was nearly always difficult but rarely cruel to her own court.

“Yes,” Jade said, sounding amused. “But he asked her to.” Moon looked up, startled. “He had big awkward wings for a fledgling, and he couldn't get off the ground. He asked for her help, and it was her only idea. Amber took it the wrong way.”

“Would she really have thrown Bitter off a platform?” he asked, settling again.

“Maybe,” she said, shrugging. “But she wouldn't have let him fall far. And she knew she wouldn't have to do it, that you'd teach him.”

“Right,” he muttered. “Because Pearl believes in me.”

“No one doubts your devotion to the royal clutch,” Jade said, rolling over until she was on top of him. “Now can we please talk about something other than Pearl?”

“You wanna talk?” he asked, letting her frills slowly slide from his fingers.

He laughed when she nipped him on his chin and decided to let it go. The clutch was safe, their guests were leaving in the morning, and Pearl wasn't his problem. Life was good.


End file.
